Istanbul Airport

Not Verified | I’ve flown into and from this airport several times now and it’s safe to say it’s pretty ridiculous. WiFi is the worst in the world - good luck trying to connect to it with the code they never text you. It’s too large and inefficient. Getting from A to B is just immensely time consuming - even if transiting make sure you’ve got at least 2-3hrs transit time because your gate might be on the side of the planet they’ve built. Customer service is lacking. The queues at passport control are too long and there are always empty desks which means they can get more staff in if they really cared. Overall, yes it’s large and new and fancy with some good shops etc - but it doesn’t serve its actual purpose well. So it’s a failure.

Not Verified | No wheelchair available. We had 6 passengers with wheelchair-bound. To our surprise, there's only 1 wheelchair available and we had a transit to go to Jeddah. They won't allow wheelchair outside the gate. All those disabled family members had to walk almost 4 km with luggage. Worst experience ever.

✅ Trip Verified | The new Istanbul Airport is huge and well designed. It's busy even at midnight. There are plenty choices of shopping and dinning. There are more security screening counters for transit than the old airport so the queue is shorter. The signs are clear. Some airport staff, however, are inpatient and pay little attention to passengers requests.

✅ Trip Verified | Very big airport that requires a long walk too. Big frauds are there like 'Global Exchange', 'Taxi services'. Although EURO is not a Turkish currency, all of the airport shops ask for EURO and price is too high than any other par of the world. 'Global Exchange' cheats the tourists by delivering US $1 = less than 5 Lira and 1 EUR = less than 6 lira . In reality , the exchange rate was US $1 = 5.87 Lira and 1 EUR = 6.65 lira . If one wants to exchange Lira with USD they ask for more than 7 Lira for 1 US $. They say they offer the best deal and charge no commission. Airport taxis are awful: they do not speak in English and the drivers drive such a way so that tourists cannot reach their destinations easily. No one is there to see these, the information kiosks are neither friendly nor sincere.

✅ Trip Verified | I have been in this this airport several times whenever I flew by Turkish. However, this one is the newly built and beautifully built. I liked the residuals of the World's oldest civilization of 'Gobekli Tepe', really amazing. There are many shops and food courts that are obviously very expensive. Wifi was good. Though the airport and its facilities has been changed, the attitudes of staff have remained the same, bad and rude.

✅ Trip Verified | A new 1 billion dollar fabulous airport, but what’s with the WiFi? You have add your phone number to receive an SMS code to get on their airport WiFi! Well if you’re just passing through, your respective phone probably isn’t going to work, and no WiFi for you! Come on, this is 2020. Please! Change this so we can simply get online easily like the other 80 + airports I have been in around the world!

✅ Trip Verified | An airport built to impress, but not to serve. A tiring, huge, heartless, could-be-anywhere shopping mall, with frustratingly clunky WiFi (even in the IAG business lounge – worked the first time, but not the second), long distances to cover on foot for no apparent reason other than megalomania, an unnecessarily complicated system for airport carts, a long time from landing to getting to the terminal (by bus) – in short: a lot of Wow! when you first arrive, but no useful lessons learnt from other international airports. Some good Turkish food here and there, but other than that I’ll try to avoid transiting through this airport as much as I can in the future.

Not Verified | The people at the airport are just rude. When we rebooked our flight, we were allocated our new flight without a word. After that I wanted to see a doctor because of my travel illness, I should only get medication to treat the symptoms because of the information I hardly understood. When I wanted to pay for the tablets, the pharmacist couldn't even change my money. Wanted to change my euro note smaller at a changeover, which only wanted me to change euro and Turkish lira. I let them know that I was in an emergency and I politely asked them again, they just made fun of me. Last time I flew over Istanbul. It‘s too hard.

Not Verified | I encountered rude, disinterested staff from the minute I set foot in the airport. I even stood at a counter being totally ignored by a business lounge representative whilst he played a video game on his mobile phone. He was very short and gruff with me when I interrupted him. Without even listening to my query he signalled over his shoulder towards passport control, even though I was in transit! I even met a young female traveller who, due to misguidance by airport staff missed two flights. This was her first ever experience of traveling and it is not overexaggerating to say she was traumatised by it. Being in transit in this airport is not just unpleasant, it is absolutely dreadful. I will never travel via this airport again, ever!

✅ Trip Verified | Far too big, though nicely appointed. The walks to gates and back are far too long for a brand new airport. Everything is priced in Euros, with a scandalously expensive, rip off exchange rate to Turkish lira, though this aspect has latterly been addressed. Prices remain in euros however, so you have to ask what the rate will be if you wish to use Liras. The ownership is unclear, with rumour from Turkish Airlines personnel, that all shops are ultimately owned by a company with the President's son as a key player on the Board.